'Eleven Days' by Lea Carpenter

by Bob Minzesheimer, USA TODAY

by Bob Minzesheimer, USA TODAY

What it's about: Debut novel about a single mother and her son, who, after 9/11, decides not to apply to Harvard but the Naval Academy. A decade later, he's reported missing from a Special Operations Forces mission the same night as the Osama bin Laden raid.

Memorable line: "A SEAL's best weapon, like a scholar's, is his mind."

THE AUTHOR

Quick bio: Carpenter, 40, who grew up in Wilmington, Del., has degrees from Princeton (English) and Harvard (business) and was a founding editor of Francis Ford Coppola's literary magazine, Zoetrope. She lives in Manhattan with her husband and two sons, 5 and 1.

Inspiration: "The loss of my father," who served in Army Intelligence in China and Burma in World War II. He died at 89 in 2008. "My character shares a lot with my father - a different time, different guns, but the same ethos."

On her 52-book bibliography: "I wanted to answer a question I expected: 'If I found this interesting, what else can I read?' "

On her dedication ("For the one who said, 'Only tactical competence, and humility, impresses me' "): "I asked him for impressive shooting statistics; his answer resonated with me."